Saving Starbucks

This is a fascinating little story.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Ever since Starbucks announced this month that it would close 600 stores by early next year, as its business struggles, the rallying cause has switched to saving these endangered locations.

In other words, having for years been seen as the intrusive outsider destroying the High Street, Starbucks has, in a very short time, become the traditional local business that needs to be saved from extinction.

A fabulous example of loss aversion, if ever I saw one.

Comments

[robert small]

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THERE SPECIALTY DRINKS BUT THERE REGULAR BRAND COFFEE IS MUCH TO STRONG. NOT TO MENTION THE PRICES.

[CT Barbarian]

The real shame is that the site mentioned in the WSJ, 44th & Madison, was a locally owned coffee place until Starbucks bought them out. I would pop in there frequently (both before and after) due to it's proximity to the northern access to Grand Central Terminal.

I hope another coffee place takes it over.

[Ian Kemmish]

No, it's just two different groups of people. Bankruptcy is far too good a fate for the suits who filled every convention centre in the US with that ghastly burnt pong.

[Silent Hunter]

Why would anyone want to buy coffee from Starbucks?

Watch the film...Black Gold...and see the abysmal way that they treat their coffee bean suppliers.

Good riddance I say.....leaves more room for FAIR TRADE outlets.

BTW Robert....

It's 'their' speciality drinks...
&
'their' regular brand...
&
.....much 'too' strong....

Hope that helps. :O)

[Cary Portway]

ROBERT SMALL, PLEASE LEARN TO SPELL BEFORE POSTING COMMENTS! And you don't have to shout to be heard.

[Ted Kitchens Jr]

OMG!!! Not StarBucks.... We need to ask the Federal Reserve Bank to infuse a few billion dollars into this institution along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac!! How will everyone cope with the lose of their local coffee shop? Never mind that they have no bloody house to live in or are on the verge of loosing it. PEOPLE, WAKE UP!!! Fuel, food and basic services are rising. Wages are not keeping up. It takes the average person all they can do just to feed their family and put fuel in the car to get to work. And your worried about a damn coffee shop! Glad peoples priorities are in line. When you are homeless just think about the comfort of that 7.00$ latte. That should make things a whole lot better. Ted, Georgia, USA

[Paul]

Lets hope the whole chain closes. I'm tired of them trying to pass cat sick off as coffee.

[Doug]

I work in Seattle and have never been a great fan of Starbucks. Whoever came up with the idea that you can or should charge 4.00 for a bloody cup of acid strong coffee.. yuk. Just give me my drip coffee at .25 cents a cup and I'm fine. When I go downtown and find a starbuck on both corners of the same black I'm like what the hell is this?

[billy]

Fair trade coffee tastes like the sweepings from the floor.

[Allen Wright]

Starbucks is one of the few places in London where you can get filtered coffee, rather than watered down "Americano" (why is it called that anyway? Americans don't drink it that way)... so snub it for political or ethical reasons if you want, but at least the basic drip coffee alternative is available there (unlike at Nero's or Costa's).

[Stella G]

I have had my share of bumps with Starbucks but I can tell you I will certainly miss them if they did. Their coffee is strong but an acquired taste for the more experienced palate. Myself I have been to their locations in England, Canada and the US and I always know what to expect. A lot of times they are responsible entirely for gentrification of some of the worst neighborhoods I have seen. I like the atmosphere and attitude towards the disabled like myself. Customer service is usually very good and the place is clean and always handy. I think some of you will miss them as much as I would and hope they never go. I think most don't like them because they are American. As for the treatment of workers a lot of companies do the same thing. If this is the case it wouldn't change my mind. It takes me away from my neighborhood and makes me feel comfortable and I fit in unlike many cafes suited only for able bodied persons. They support many charities including Helen Keller Centre that helps the Deaf-Blind. So if mine goes I think I will lose all faith in the world. There is no comparison with Walmart it is like comparing apples to oranges. Although most of you do shop there anyways so if you don't like it try somewhere else like everyone else does and leave them to people like me who depend on them.

[Jon]

Starbucks is in someways a victim of its own sucess.

Many of there branches cant cope with the number of visitors and thus you have to queue up for 5 - 10 minutes to be order then queue up again to get your drink.

The Starbucks stores down Oxford Street are absolute hell - Hardly a 'premium' experance in anyones book.

The quality of the coffee is also a bit hit and miss these days as the staff are under so much pressure to serve people quick - especially when there are 10 to twelve sets of impatient eyes staring at them.

[Stephen Wilson]

As I live in Italy all year, where real and generally good Italian coffee is sold at every bar, I am not unhappy to see the demise of one of these overpriced coffee-bar chains. Luckily, in Eastbourne, where I stay in the UK, there is a small, family-run Italian coffee bar where the real thing can be had. The others are only luxury monuments to a great con-trick on the UK consumer.

[Ceskyanglican]

No loss at all. People who drink coffee at Starbucks do so because it is the "in" place to meet. All they are doing is displaying their complete ignorance about quality coffee. The sooner this, and all the other rubbish American chains go bankrupt the better.

[Faisal]

Robert - I think a little less caffeine in your system might be a good thing.

[Hilton Gray]

Well done silent hunter, it is truly appalling the way people butcher and sodomise the English language these days.

[James]

Wow! So much emotional language in use. Why rejoice in the removal of a coffee shop from your area - if indeed any of them are in the area of the critics on this page? If people didn't like the experience, they wouldn't go to a Starbucks / AN Other Retail Outlet, so you can't use a public service argument against them. Shoppers choose where to spend their pounds / dollars, and it looks like in this case Starbucks has decided not enough are spending with them.

If there is enough demand for a little 'authentic' Italian coffee house, then it will stay afloat. Starbucks can only offer an alternative. My personal experience has been that most of the independents are run by people who don't fully grasp the standards of quality, service, and experience (or business nous) promised by organised groups of unrelated people united by a common value system i.e. larger companies.

Get over yourselves and stop whinging.

[ian tindale]

BTW SILENT HUNTER and CARY PORTWAY- at least ROBERT SMALL added something to the comments, whereas your small minded nit-picking added nothing at all!! Did someone say anal retentive???

[Esther]

Not in agreement with you there, Ian. Badly spelt, shouty, incoherent rants rarely add anything to a debate except offence or unintentional hilarity. I wish more people would react like silent hunter and cary portway - it might scare off the idiots who cause every thread to degenerate into a slanging match couched in syntax that would embarass a pre-schooler.

[Chris T]

"Their coffee is strong but an acquired taste for the more experienced palate"

Got to be joking - what sort of experience would that be! Starbucks is the junk food rubbish of coffee shops.

But worse than the coffee is their approach of intentionally forcing out local independent coffee shops (who might make something worth drinking).

I have been boycotting Starbucks for the last year (not that I was a regular prior to that) since visiting Seville - the last straw so to speak. An astonishingly beautiful city - and three Starbucks within 100m of the Cathedral, all next to or opposite a tradional local coffee shop. Anyone care to explain?

[Craig]

How can anyone be upset about the demise of truly awful coffee? As a barista I am proud of my knowledge and skill, ask the people behind the counter at SBs about grind, tamping pressure and extraction times and you will be met with blank stares. And don't get me started about the size of the cups (buckets...) they serve the slop in. Craig

[Shaun - Tanzania]

"Their coffee is strong but an acquired taste for the more experienced palate"

I professionally ‘cup’ (test) over 600 cups of coffee per day. Starbucks (up until very recently) used to buy the very best coffee on the market (at a much much higher price then Fairtrade). My colleagues almost cried when I brought back a pack of Starbucks coffee from UK for them to taste. After all the hard work we had gone to getting the very best coffee to them they had destroyed it in the roast!

[Cranberry Girl]

"Latte" is French for, "You spent too much money for that coffee."

[stephen]

all I know is coffee tastes like the devils piss

[AFlan, Edinburgh]

Ditto what Stephen Wilson said. On a recent trip to Paris it was so refreshing to be back in the land of real independent cafes on every corner, staffed by professional waiting-staff, who don't feel the need to extort the customer into overpaying for awful branded coffee masquerading as a lifestyle product/'experience'. It was, however, depressing to see SB's popping up all over the city which defines cafe culture, like Chris T notes in Seville. It was also interesting to read in Le Figaro while there that SB's is still in the red four years after moving into France. According to their spokesman massive buckets of 'customised' coffee aren't to French tastes. Long may it continue!

[Fred Bear]

If Starbucks or Costa or whoever close branches, then so be it. It's called commercial reality. Perhaps if they trimmed their prices they might actually survive longer (?).

Whatever. Here in Lincoln, U.K. we have one of the finest coffee shops in the known universe. privately owned. Coffees come in one size only. Beans bought direct from farmer and proof of price paid posted for all to see - and it's a lot more than even Fairtrade pay. lots of other info given as well. Prices are still less than the "Chains". So, if the global players end up closing some branches, I'll feel sorry for the minimum-wage staff but that's about all.

Second the opinion about coffee in Italy - generally excellent. Coffee in America ? Generally close to un-drinkable.

[Charlotte]

This comes as no surprise, nor will it to Starbucks, as it is merely part of their business strategy. They may be 'forced' to close 600 stores, but there will still be yet another not a few metres away.

Starbucks open more outlets than are economically viable, forcing the smaller businesses who cannot compete to withdraw from the market. Once successfully dominating the local coffee market, they can close one of the many braches in the area. The business is then focussed on the remaining branch.

The temporary economic blow of closing one business is minor compared to the profit to be gained in the aftermath.

Screw the local businesses and the workers who, in good faith, took on a role within a company so often topping the polls for 'best companies to work for'.

Don't lament the loss of Starbucks, praise them! A very shrewd company indeed.